Poor orphan boy
by Bwaybabe54
Summary: Les is sent to the refuge, all alone.


p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"It was about 3 months since the strike was settled, and it was early on a Saturday morning. Crutchie had been too weak to make it to the rooftop, so he and Jack had been sleeping in the lodging house, along with Davey and Les, who had recently lost their folks. They shared a bed right beside Jack's. Jack was up early again, shaken awake by nightmares that would haunt him probably forever. Les mumbles something in his sleep and snuggles closer to Davey, which woke him up. Davey looked down at him and smiled. Les had that effect on people, especially Davey and Jack. Just looking at his little round face and rosy cheeks could make their insides all warm and you have to smile. Now that Crutchie had stopped selling papes, Davey and Jack had been doing everything they could to protect Les. Davey looks up and sees me awake. He placed a hand on Les' shoulder. They gave their blanket to a boy who had a cold, so they had to rely on each other to stay warm, especially during these winter months. "Jack," Davey startled Jack out of his thoughts. "Have you seen how the Delanceys have been looking at him?" He pointed quietly down at Les. "Yeah. I have." "What are we s'posed to do?" Jack honestly had no idea. "We'll just keep him close. It'll be fine." If it were someone else, Jack might call them overprotective. But he knew how much Les meant to Davey, he meant the same to Jack. I might as well be his other older brother. Les suddenly curled into a ball and woke up. "Davey... I had a nightmare..." he started to cry and Davey immediately goes into big brother mode, comforting and hugging Les. Jack went over to sit on the edge of the bed. He patted his back and stayed silent. Eventually Les stops crying. Davey put an arm around him. "Les, today we gotta stay close together, okay?" Les looked confused. Davey had just recently let Les start selling by himself, and he'd been having a lot of fun and been selling more papes. "Why?" Davey bit his lip and shot Jack a look that said, /spanspan class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"help. /spanspan class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""The Spider is back from his vacation," Jack said. That was actually true, another thing they needed to be aware of. "Oh," The morning bell started to ring. "Time to get up, kid," Les jumped up and reached under the bed and pulled out his hat. He put it on and then plopped back down on the bed. "See, Davey? I /spanspan class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"am/spanspan class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"being patient. Just like you taught me." Davey chuckled. "You sure are." A few minutes later, most of the boys were up and moving. "Tommy Boy, Buttons, Elmer, we're headed out!" Called Jack to the not-so-early risers. He won a groan from Buttons and headed out the door of the lodging house. Jack and Davey held the hands of Les and swung him back and forth, and back and forth. Les squealed with delight as he jumped up and skipped the rest of the way to newsies square. A few minutes later they arrived in newsies square, surprised to find it empty. No Delancey Brothers, no Wiesel. Nothing. Nothing at all. Just then, all the newsies turned to the sound of a baton, crunching against the concrete. Standing before the newsies were the Delanceys, Wiesel, about 15 goons, and Snyder. /span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Jack was blinded by rage. Just when everything was back to normal. Go figure. "Whadda ya guys want from us? We ain't done nothin'. I thought we were done with this!" Just then, they charged at the newsies. Davey and Jack could hear the grunts and yells of newsies in fights. Jack charged at a large goon who was distracted tormenting another newsie. Davey fought with Wiesel, who punched him in the face harder than he'd ever been punched before. Just then, Jack's ears were pierced by a blood-curdling, high pitched scream. /spanspan class="s2" style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Italic'; font-style: italic; font-size: 17pt;"Oh no, please god, no. /spanspan class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Jack turned slowly to see Les, hoisted over the shoulder of none other than Snyder the Spider. All of the confidence drained from his body. span class="Apple-converted-space" /span"Jack! Davey! Help me! HELP ME!" Les was in tears, and Davey started running towards his baby brother, Jack shortly behind him. "Shut up, wimp!" Snyder said. "NO! Put me down-" Davey and Jack watched in horror as Snyder held a kicking and screaming Les to Morris Delancey, who punched him-hard- in the face, and Les was hoisted again over Snyder's shoulder. Snyder shot jack and Davey an evil glare, then ran off towards the refuge. /span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Les' head hurt. He gathered up all his strength and sat up, propping himself against a wall. Where was he? He looked around and this afternoon's events came rushing back to him. /span/p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Snyder had put him in the refuge. He then took out his cane and hit Les- mostly in the arms. He had tears streaming down his face. What had he done? He had never even talked to Snyder and for some reason, during the fight, he had come straight for Les. He cleared his mind of all thoughts and sighed. He missed Davey. What was he doing right now? He hoped Jack and Davey had a plan to get him out. Oh, how he wanted to be out. He would give anything. Then it occurred to him. Maybe... /span/p 


End file.
